Jean-Luc Lagard�re, the charismatic 75-year-old founder of French coachbuilder Matra Automobiles, died on March 14^th, 2003, just weeks after severing his lifelong connection with the auto industry, having left Renault's board and having sold his 1.3% stake in the automaker.

Matra Automobiles, part of the large defense and media Matra conglomerate now run by Lagard�re's son Arnaud, once won Le Mans three years in a row (1972, 1973, 1974) with its M-series M620 through M670.

Matra's little D'Jet was mong the first roadgoing mid-engined cars, while the Matra-Simca Bagheera; Matra-Simca Rancho (the world's first crossover?), and Talbot-Matra Murena were nothing if not unique.

More recently, Matra went on to build the Espace minivan for Renault and, later, something of a 2-door minivan: the confounding Avantime.

Presented as a concept by Matra, and given the go-ahead by Renault, the Avantime shocked the market just by showing up. It remains one of the few production cars that was impossible to categorize.

In 2003, Matra Automobiles found itself facing mounting losses stemming from Avantime's lackluster sales. Well short of the 20,000 annual units it had planned to build, Renault pulled the plug on its innovative minivan/ coupé/ wagon after barely a year on the market.